@larryisaman I love that SammyClassicSonicFan stuck around on YouTube long enough for us to finally all learn about the consequences of our actions. Seeing him react to Superstars being anounced was fun. And given his Mario backpack, I bet he's excited to have Wonder released as well!
@brakeman90 Hey no worries! I honestly can't tell any difference between patched and non-patched, it must have been very minor bug fixes or something but I played it solidly for 2 days before updating and it was rock solid.
@Nua While I really like how Amy played in the Advance series and in Adventure, for me those make more sense as her modern moves that she has learned as she got older, stronger and tougher. The way she's implemented in Origins Plus is pretty spot on for what I'd have imagined "classic" Amy from Sonic CD to have played as back in the day (at least once I knew about her hammer, which she first got in Fighters). She plays very similarly to Sonic, which makes sense in my mind, she's a hedgehog afterall, and spends her time idolising him. I like her running smashy smashy hammer thing she does instead of the drop dash! And her super move is hilariously OP. She's a "easy mode" but she's very fun. Plus the sprite is super cute. Other than a couple of slightly awkwards frames for certain moves I think she looks perfect.
I think the main reason I felt she should have been included in Mania was because we had her in the classic games a year before Knuckles even showed up. I loved her right from the first preview I saw in a magazine when CD was in development and always wanted her to be playable in a game. Of course, Mighty and Ray were also in SegaSonic arcade, which was the same year as Sonic CD, so they should be there too... I just thought Amy is part of the "core 4" and far more well known so by jumping to Mighty and Ray it felt like she was skipped over on purpose.
I'd agree to your subscribing to Occams razor too if it were just the outfits... its the fact they are officially placing this game inbetween Mania and Adventure that makes me think there may be hope. Because they are unifying the timeline and allowing for games to be made that bridge the gap between the 2d pixel titles and the 3d ones. If they continue that line of thought, sequels to Superstars (or prequels to Adventure) could be interesting. It might also explain why Modern Sonic is in Sonic Pocket Adventure, despite it being mostly Sonic3 + 3 assets! lol
I loved the Archie Comics, and the Fleetway ones too - both completely different but equally bonkers and ambitious with the liberties they took. I feel like the IDW stuff is by far the most "official" feeling stuff so far though, its so carefully watched over and everything has to be approved a million times over - but its made by 100% raving longterm nerdy fans, so there so much lore and easter eggs and references there. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out over time.
And yeah of course AIR is the best way to play Sonic 3, and I'm a huge fan of fangames, mods, etc and also make my own. But there's something special to me about an official product, even if it isn't quite as good as other options, simply by the fact that its official and that means Sega approved it and if its good that means they are listening or there is hope for future stuff to be good. Origins now its officially updated to the point of being really good and is easily modable to add the old music back in or make adjustments if you want. For me though, just having the core four officially playable in all the 16bit titles is enough to justify its existance... though I'm still making my own version so Mighty & Ray and the Chaotix can play too... and you can have any partner character you want rather than just Tails. Why those restrictions are in the official game I'll never get my head around. 😅
@gaga64 Haha yeah you summed it up pretty well. Its certainly been confusing up until this point! 😂
@Nua Very interesting post. I heard about that leak too, yeah. I think Superstars DLC is a given, it would definitely make sense to add more characters to the roster and if they do it would be classic ones like Mighty & Ray or the Chaotix. I'd like a deluxe physical "Plus" version in a slip case to match Mania and Origins but I don't think that will happen being they started off as a "full price" physical release from jump - but I could be wrong.
Also, yeah its absolute madness that Mighty and Ray aren't in Origins, just as I thought it was crazy Amy wasn't brought to Mania. Sega are weird with their characters like you said. Thats exactly why I'm making my own version of Origins with all characters in all games (including the 8bit titles, Chaotix etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM ) just to scratch the itches that I wish Sega would officially do! lol
I know traditionally they've wanted to keep the classic characters and the modern characters apart, but like I said, they have now seemingly finally allowed the possibility of the "classic" forms of the main four characters growing older and becoming the modern ones, and placing the game on the timeline like this, in addition to allowing Amy to get her new dress sets a precident thats its potentially possible for the other classic characters to get older and have modern versions. Of course, we already have modern versions of Vector, Charmy and Espio, so it would make sense to bring accross Mighty to complete team Chaotix. And if they did that, why not bring Ray? And then why not Trip? lol
But of course, Sega is Sega and just because something makes sense doesn't mean they'll do it. I've bought every console and add on they've ever made since the Master System, I'm used to them making baffling descisions or leaving glaring omissions by now. I still love them for the stuff they get right though. I love Superstars, and will happily buy any DLC and hopefully sequels. 😅
[edit] By the way I was going to correct you about Mighty and Ray not being in the IDW comics by saying I literally have comics right here with them in, but then I realised that they are one-shots. The Amy oneshot they just released has them both and lots of other characters. It even has Bean, and essentially "confirms" that he is the same character as Bin from Dynamite Dux (because he has a framed poster of his brother on the wall) even though Sega have previously claimed this not to be the case. I think thats a very smart retcon it was insanely stupid to try and claim they weren't the same character and just looked the same 😂 Bark is in that same comic too, its a wild one! Really cute little one off story for Amy to be the hero of.
@Vexx234 Yes I forgot to mention mania in my reply to @gaga64 but you are completely right about that. Sort of like Disney retreading some themes in Force Awakens while adding new, Sega thought best to retread some old ground for Mania. The logic here is twofold, both to appeal to nostalgia of old fans, but also to hopefully introduce whats great about the property to newcomers.
My own personal feeling is Mania makes a far better "Sonic 4" than actual Sonic 4, firstly because it feels like an actual step forward from the older games, but because it actually has significant amounts of new zones, and the "re-used" ones are vastly expanded upon and improved, rather than just "same thing but different layout with rendered sprites, and removing many of the features of Sonic 3 and going back to Sonic 1 for some reason".
Again though, while I still would have thought it was naff, I wouldn't have felt quite so much vitriol towards Sonic 4 had it been called something else, and also kept as a mobile title and not promoted as a console game. Ironicly - this is exactly what it was meant to be during development. A mobile spinoff, not a continuation of the mainline series.
@gaga64 I'm not sure that it was ever officially outright called a reimagining, but there were interviews at the time of Episode 2 where they basically said "Episode one was just Sonic and zones from Sonic 1, now we're using zones from Sonic 2, and added Tails just like Sonic 2" and then hinted that Episode 3 would add Knuckles and levels from S3+K. Of course, that never happened as even though it was improved, reception still wasn't great, and sales were down.
Many of the games released around that time had been of wildly varying quality, with 06 and GBA Genesis still in recent memory, and Free Riders (the Kinnect one), Secret Rings, Black Knight all being poorly recieved but with some real high points like All Stars Racing, Colours and Generations. For me, Sonic 4 was the lwoest point of all that, especially as it deemed itself fit to use that name, it felt like an insult. Had it just been a cheap and cheerful mobile game that wasn't great, it would have been easier to brush it off. But that name still rankles.
Anyway, there was interviews from around the time they decided not to make Episode 3 where Iizuka said they were going back to the drawing board and Sega were making a commitment to releasing far fewer but higher quality games to refresh the brand, and also anouncing the partnership with Nintendo for 3 exclusive games. That was exciting! Of course, in reality that meant Lost World & the Sonic Boom games so I don't think they quite hit their target.
They then released another statement basically saying the same thing again... which lead to Mania, Forces and Team Sonic Racing. Much better overall, but after the latter two had a mixed reception he released another very similar statement, and anounced Colours Ultimate to try and appease the fans with a game Sega knew they liked, and to bide them time.
Since then we've gotten Origins, Frontiers, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Superstars. 😀 While Origins and Frontiers launch in imperfect states, I think thery are now in good shape, and I think the games are in the healthiest place they've been for a while 🥰
@MontyCircus "She fostered for the money." wow I wasn't even aware that was a thing. I'm truly sorry to hear about that situation. Although I thank you for sharing your story and giving context, and would never discourage people from sharing experiences, I mostly agree with what @GooseLoose1 said.
The site moderators have asked that we don't keep elaborating on topics not related to the game, and I will respect that. I think I made my feelings, position and standing clear in all the above posts. I hope that fostered child is now doing ok.
@DripDropCop146 Ah, sorry! If its not obvious by my style of posting, I'm autistic. 😅 And for me that means sometimes I take jokes as serious by accident. 😇
@F-ZeroX Wow thank you so much for taking the time to type that and for sharing such personal experiences. You sound like a fantastic father! I used to love sharing videogames with my kids when they were growing up too. That was a helpful post and gave me food for thought, thank you again!
I agree that in some ways 2d platforming is easier to pick up than 3d, certainly for difficult passages and intricate jumps. But many modern kids games jump straight to analogue stick movement, and just elliminate or automate jumps, as pushing a stick in the exact direction in realtive space to them is actually more intuitive, at first at least. Also, many of the most popular games with young kids are either touch screen experiences on phones/tablets, or 3d mouse and keyboard games like Minecraft and Roblocks. So its quite possible many kids grow up playing games but have never tried a 2d platform game, especially if they don't own a Nintendo platform. A good friend of mine is actually a successful and highly accomplished professional gamer and streamer (in her mid 20s) and had never played a platform game before. Blew my mind how hard she found it to adjust, though was gratifying to watch her progress and master it.
2d platformers have always been my favourite genre, especially cartoonish colourful mascot ones. Our mascot Hazel is actually going to star in many games, hopefully... as I said, we're designing her first game to be as beginer friendly as possible for all ages and experience, but also to be satisfying and challenging for experienced fans of the genre. As you intuited, that is not an easy thing to do at all. Of course, accessibility is also very important. We're trying to have as many options for differently abled people as well, where possible.
We have folders and folders of paperwork planning and documenting every tiny aspect so we can keep track of it all as development, balancing and refining through playtesting etc progresses. Its a challenge, for sure, but will be very rewarding if we get it right and both kids and their gamer parents, and gamers of all abilities and skill levels can get equal amounts of fun from it! 🥰
@gaga64 Thats a very interesting case. Its essentially a "remake" of Sonic 2, but with Sonic 3 music, and Sonic's modern design! lol. Maybe modern Sonic ate something bad in mushroom hill zone and its all a hallucination?
BTW, despite me thinking its weird, imo its a really great game. SNK absolutely nailed the "feel" of it. I bought a beautiful Aqua Blue NGPC on launch day to play it, pre-ordered from the same store I also pre-ordered my Dreamcast, released around the same time. It was an exciting time to be a Sega and Sonic fan 🥰
@DripDropCop146 As I said above, despite their (stupid) names, Sonic 4 Espiode 1 is a "reimagining" of Sonic 1, and Episode 2 of Sonic 2. So thats where they would fit into the timeline canonically - if I hadn't bannished them to the depths of gaming hell ðŸ¤
@Sanangelo89 Yes exactly, I'm all for a series of games between Superstars and Adventure where they are tweens, with elements of classic and modern being added. When does Sonic canonically learn his homing attack, for example?
Seeing classic Amy with her modern dress was the first hint that this might become a thing. I'm all for it, and especially think it could have really interesting arcs for the IDW comic series.
@Vexx234 lol no I absolutely do! I find it hilarious. Right now as we speak I'm making final notes before recording a ridiculously long YouTube vide where I review every single Sonic game all the way up to superstars. I'm not even sure how long it will end up. 5 hours? 10 hours? 😱 I live for the weird stuff, and the historical context of it all.
@Quiet2down Yes, that's certainly what they used to claim. Famously, repeatedly in interviews and especially at public events, when questioned if something was canon, Sega would just hardline say "everything is canon!" so as to not offend fans of something, even when pushed about obscure only semi official stuff like Sonic Schoolhouse, Sonic Eraser, or the weird LeapFrog version of Sonic 1 where maths and spelling problems keep blocking the the way. 😂 If questioned further on discrepancies between things like different backstories in different comics or whatever, they've repeatedly used the multiverse / infinitely splitting thing.
The conscious effort is to now try and retcon as much old stuff as is reasonably possible, and make everything moving forward more straightforward. But yeah, I'm 100% sure there will still sometimes be jumping between alternate multiverses and time travelling. Thats innevitable is you don't want to exclude some cool teamups and fun ideas. 😀 But it shouldn't be an all purpose "get out of jail card" for not caring about this stuff moving forward, so now Sonic's international audience is growing rapidly again and becoming popular with new generations of young fans and not just us old-guard, making stuff simple is a good idea.
@AlienX Yeah. Spoilers for second movie: I'm really looking forward to seeing how they handle Shadow in the third movie, especially now that they've decided the movies and comics are canon in how the characters are portrayed in the games moving forward.
@Snatcher Its only extremely recently that they started to seriously trying to nail this stuff down. Earlier this year Katie headhunted a dude from twitter who seemed to be very knowledgable on Sonic lore and Sega of America hired him to be a proper lore master and help collate all the old stuff and make sense of everything, and basically reached out to Sonic Team and were like "uhhh, now that the brand is having a moment, with the huge success of the movies, comics, people wanting to make shows, more merch etc... we really need to get everything straight. Can we collaborate and agree on a solid canon moving forward so that everything will work well together?".
They make sure that the comics stuff, marketing team, tv producers, movie writers and all the difefrent teams making games (including mobile, speed simulator etc) are on the same page as far as the story and lore beats. They discussed this on a recent live stream on the official Sonic YouTube channel. The dude they hired seems great, just as obsessively nerding out about the tiniest forgotten detail as you'd hope someone hired to do that job would be.
Iizuka and Kishimito have both separately stated that they are really happy with how loved Sonic is in the west and how seriously fans take everything and embrace even the "bad" things of the past, and they want to make sure all areas of the Sonic fanbase are happy with all media moving forward and feel seen/represented. 😀
@Vexx234 Oh yeah, totally. Like I said I agree with you. I think a lot of what decisions were made were short term decisions and they didn't think too deeply about the long term lore because who'd expect fans would still care about lots of the incidental stuff 30+ years later? Especailly when licenscing out the property to different comics, cartoon shows etc - thats where it gets really messy!
@Snatcher I think the arguement is now that Classic and Modern Sonic are the same character at different points in time, and games that have them both are just Sonic time travelling to help himself.
This makes far more sense to me that what they used to say, that they were actually different characters from a different dimension/multiverse. The only reason they even went with that convoluted explanation in the first place is when they made the modern versions for Adventure they retconed so that the age gaps between the characters of Sonic/Tails/Knux/Amy were smaller, perhaps allowing for romance between Sonic and Amy if they wanted to lean into that further down the line.
@Vexx234 Sorry, I shouldn't have said "you all", I've gone back and edited my wording - but I was only half serious anyway. I get that this stuff isn't that serious and there's no possible way to make it all make full sense anyways. Thats all I meant.
I definitely think you are right though. Even though Sonic was created as a direct rival to Mario with the intention of being a brand mascot, I'm not sure anyone at either Sega or Nintendo was really sure that their mascot characters would still be going strong several decades later... they could have had no concept what videogames would evolve into over time, or if the market would even exist in a form they would be able to imagine.
Though while Mario's creation was somewhat of a happy accident (losing Popeye license, needing replacement game for failed existign arcade cabinets) combined with forced technology limits (colours, moustache, dungarees), Sonic was at least designed to be similar to Mickey Mouse in his broad appeal and as a brand that would exist outside of "only" videogames with animations and comics planned right from the start. So they probably hoped that he would last and tried to design something that could stand the test of time, rather than Mario's more accidental origins then being developped into a more long term brand friendly mascot over time through different iterations.
@MirrorFate2 I'm fairly sure we'll get more "classic" / 2d games that happen after Superstars and before Adventure. I'm sure they'll find a good reason for Trip and Fang to dissapear for a while (maybe Trip moves to a specific island to protect an emerald or whatever), but there's always potential for them to come back in new games set in the modern timeline too, now they've established that the classic and modern versions are the same characters, just older (which they have previously resisted for reasons that never made sense to me).
I'm really hoping there's a Superstars 2 or whatever and Trip is playabel from the begining. I love her and want her to become a staple character. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with her in the IDW comics to flesh out her character and backstory.
I preordered, but its going to my house and I'm currently still at my mum's house sitting. Couple more days of playing Superstars til I get home and probably switch to Mario. Excited to try it!
I know people will dunk on this and I honestly don't take this very serously, despite this mini info dump (and probably many more posts because I find it fun to talk about this stuff!) But there's a tonne of Sonic media not just the "run fast and do loops" games. They are making a conscious effort nowadays to make the comics, series, movies, and games all work together, and literally recently hired a lore manager to try and retcon as much of the previous stuff as possible, to answer common fan questions and help them feel that whichever continuity they grew up with is at least remembered and respected, if not fully adopted.
(There are at least 3 completely different sets of comics (Archie, Fleetway, IDW... also manga) and multiple runs of alternate universe tv shows. Every one of them is "Sonic's backstory" to somebody who grew up with them. Right here as I'm typing I've got a bunch of full Sonic novels (written books, not graphic novels!), and a run of the Fleetway comics, which have my favourite origin for Robotnik, a Chaotix based Archie special, some IDW...)
There will never be perfect answers for everything, and I don't think even the most obsessive of fans need that. But its nice to have things at least roughly make sense in your head canon, and not have your favourite character or plotlines be erased - its rather "they haven't met them yet" or "they live on a different island" etc.
To me, it was obvious that Superstars is after Mania, both because of Amy having the choice of outfits and Lego Sonic having green eyes (its like their awkward tween stage!) and because its basically "Sonic 5" to Mania's "Sonic 4". (the 2 games poorly labeled as Sonic 4 episodes are actually just partial remakes of Sonic 1 and 2. And we don't talk about them! lol )
My main takeaway from all of this is its very likely Mighty and Ray will be added to the game at a later stage. And the rest of the Chaotix, please? Also, its possible that both Trip and Fang will be added to new games moving forward, as well as potential "modern" forms for all the classic characters that haven't made the jump yet. I'd love that.
@MattmanForever I know you are joking, but not really, see my above comment and #19. It was a pretty decent success for Disney and is an active property being rebooted right now. In all my years on the periphery of various facets of Disney I've never heard anyone say it underperformed or was a disappointment. Sure it wasn't their biggest show, but there's plenty that have far less episodes and are all but forgotten nowadays by comparisson.
@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah I mentioned it in my above comment ( #19 ) defending the series. The reboot is live action (boo) but being directed by James Wan, so there is potential. Jordan Peele also pitched a movie adaptation, which could have been amazing, but they went with a show for Disney+ instead. It was meant to come this year but was delayed by the writers and SAG AFTRA strikes. Still very much coming though, last I heard.
@Vexx234 Oh yeah there's a tonne of potential in the character, he's not just the "Edge-hog" stereotype. I'd be up for another Shadow game, or a deeper story for him in one of the mainline games.
Spoiler if you haven't seen the second Sonic movie I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with him in the third movie. I really thought they did a great job with Knuckles in the second one!
@nocdaes Thank you 😀 I've made mistakes like all parents but I've never done anything other than try and do whats best for my kids and my family. Its a cliched phrase, but they are my world. Quite literally.
@Wisps Thank you! Well my (adopted) child is now a young adult and fully grown. Could not be any more proud of them. Never once did I for a second regret my decision to make them my chosen family 🥰
@Woderwick Ah! Well I'm glad I shared it with you then. Indeed is a classic story and smith is a great story teller. I don't doubt a word of it, I've had very similar meetings and scenarios - especially having to have the same meeting several times and saying the exact same thing, but each time there being a slightly more important person in the room to hear you say it. 😂
Yes I'm especially fond of his early work, and the recent callbacks to them in his latest films have been great. But I even enjoy his less celebrated work - for example the entirely stupid concept of a film "Tusk" in the first half at least (before Johnny Depp turns up) is incredibly well excecuted, for such a knowingly stupid idea it plays it so dead pan and the writing and acting is far better than it has any right to be. Some of the best slowly raising of tension and unease of any movie I've seen. Which is all the more funny to be being the entire film was made as a joke.
@Quiet2down Thanks. And yeah it wasn't Disney's biggest success but it was pretty well receieved, long running, and literally has a big budget reboot being made right now.
@NintendoLife Ok no worries, like I said, not planning on continuing. I said my piece and frankly didn't expect to have to defend myself against such random accusations, I thought my intention was clear. Again, sorry for accidentally disrailing.
@Vexx234 Yeah despite the obvious problems due to it being over ambitious and rushed to hit the 10 year aniversary, '06 had a huge amount of potential, not least in the rounding out of lots of the characters. "Shadow the Hedgehog" was a game that I can't say I ever particularly want to play again, but I played it with my eldest child when they were little and its one of their earliest happy memories, so I love it for that at least. 😀
@NintendoLife I'm sorry for accidentally derailing the conversation. But surely it was a valid concern to raise about the phrasing of the review? Of course if you don't want to change it you don't have to but when using inflamatory language (even accidentally) in the review it seems that people might feel justified in questioning why it was necessary?
Regardless, I've said all I need to say on the subject matter, I'm happy not to continue a circular discourse about it.
@Vexx234 Definitely. Sure its not as successful as Duck Tales or whatever but what is? It met expectations for the network and is still a well loved and active property today.
@pjzx Thank you 😀 I meant well, at least.
@LEGEND_MARIOID Yes, that's what they are doing but it obviously comes from a place of hurt and love for their mother, and I fully understand that. These things can cloud our judgement or make us see enemies where there are friends, or be suspicious of those that would want to help. Hurt people hurt people. I don't mind them disagreeing with me and I'm sorry that I accidentally triggered an unpleasant thought or memory for them. I'd hope that they can see that that was the very thing I was trying to prevent happening to others.
@AG_Awesome Its what Mario and the other characters say in the game when they pick up the power up. Like Mario's traditional "Wahoo!" and "Yeehaaa" etc. Its just, to some of us it sounds a little cringey and when the liklihood is its going to be repeated a lot, it has potential to quickly grate on your nerves.
Some people have started using it online, usually ironically or as a joke / meme because they know it sounds silly. But that's growing old fast and I don't want to get to the point where when I finally get to play the game, I flinch every time I hear it because I'm already sick of people saying it all the time.
@Wasgo Thank you for the support. I wasn't aware my comment would be so controversial. Not my intention to rile people up or bring up upsetting memories or feelings. Infact thats what I was trying to prevent. Oh well!
@Kb111 Again, I'm literally a whistleblower who very famously outs abusers and p**philes in the industry. That includes people within Disney, who I have worked with and around, and the vast majority of the people there are great, some were awful, and where they are I call them out. Preaching to the choir.
I'm truly sorry to hear about your mother. I've suffered from abuse too, as have many people that I love dearly to a far worse extent than I. Its nothing to be minimised and again, I've made a point of using my position of power and influence to try to help people in those situations. But I don't think any reasonable person could claim that its likely to be normal that the majority of step parents are evil/bad, or that the vast majority of step children are unwanted? That seems way off.
I do very much agree that people should talk about their experiences if they want to. Raising awareness of issues is important. Again, I do exactly this - for example I often talk about my mental health struggles, austism and other uncomfortable personal experiences in public because it helps to normalise and make people aware, or helps others going through the same thing know they aren't alone. I absolutely want all victims to speak out if they are comfortable to do so - again, I literally helmed an entire extremely viral campaign about exactly this, and wrote a non profit book and have done countless hours of talking on podcasts advocating for exactly what you are also asking for.
None of that is remotely related to a casual stereotype that step-kids are not loved. I don't know where you are making that connection, you are imaginging me to be a villain that I'm the exact opposite of. I'm sorry if I've mistakenly given you that impression.
@Zuljaras Oh absolutely its harder for single mothers to find a man who is willing to raise the other person's child. I don't debate that for a second. But for the men who do make the choice to marry the single mother and legally adopt their child? Those are the people that I highly doubt would do so if they don't love the kid and secretly resent them.
As I said, I think the old fairy tale stereotypes came from people marrying for money rather than love. Thats hardly the norm nowadays.
Because of my job I have seen and been exposed to some of the harshest and cruelest realistities of our world and met people that I can easily classify as "true evil". But my overall impression is that the vast majority of people are kind hearted people with good intentions.
@Vexx234 Yeah the show was a pretty decent success for Disney channel at the time, got 3 seasons and enough episodes to be syndicated. More recently, Jordan Peele tried to pitch a movie adaptation recently, and James Wan is making a live action series for Disney+. I've worked freelance for Disney in various capacities over the decades and I've never heard any one refer to the show as a failure.
@Primarina I'm really glad you had fun with it! I definitely see how it can be funny and/or challenging with friends all together and I'm sure some families will enjoy playing together too. I just personally feel its never likely to be the main event of a Sonic game. You'll note I wasn't advocating for its removeal, however. Its nice to have as an option. And again, really nice to hear you are enjoying it 😀
@Quiet2down Yeah I agree with that, I'd like to see other characters get their own spin offs like what happened with Knuckles and Tails back in the 90s (and I suppose Shadow in the 2000s)
@Zuljaras I will... I'm not sure I understand the logic of that particular sterotype though. You think that most step children aren't loved? Surely that isn't true. I think it stems more from the old fairytales from the days people married for money/inheritance/property rather than baring any resemblance to modern society where its extremely common for parents to remarry, or single mothers to find a new partner who loves their children.
@Kb111 I think if you were familiar with my work you'd know that I advocate for free speech all the time, very publicly and vocally. But I also advocate kindness and thinking about what we are conveying to others with our words. Casual turns of phrase can be cruel without that being the intention of the person saying them. I wasn't trying to police anything, just making a suggestion and pointing out why it might be a hurtful phrase rather than an amusing one. I said "let's not" and also stated that I wasn't casting aspirsions on Mitch, who I like alot.
And as for me being the example I want to set to the world - again, that's kinda famously my whole career. I'm far from perfect, no-one is, but I'm a work in progress. I'm sorry if my suggestion offended you - free speech means I was free to make the suggestion, and you are free to ignore it and tell me you think I'm being silly. Thats fine.
@Scollurio Thank you. I was self conscious about posting that and because I'm in the public eye I don't ever really mention many details about my private life publicly, but I really think its a damaging stereotype that is common enough to be easily casually used without thinking of how cruel in concept it actually is. I'm sure Mitch meant nothing by it, I'm not calling him out. Its a commonly used phrase.
However, being the high rate of divorce nowadays there must be more kids than ever before who have step parents. Its already an unsettling enough situation for a child without the idea being put into their head that maybe their new parent doesn't really love them. It hurts me just to type that.
I don't mean to clutch pearls but please lets not keep normalising "unloved stepchild" as a metaphor. As a father to an adopted child I love them more than anything in this world and could not give less of a crap what their dna says, and neither could they. They are my child. I am their dad. There are a great many people who are adopted that have insecurities because of the common use of phrases like this. Similarly the evil step parent is a trope we shouldn't keep pushing into the popular consciousness.
@Vexx234 Now you're talking! I think Amy, Trip and Cream would make a really good team up. They'd all play together well, are the same size and the emphasis cold be on team work and considered platforming rather than speed.
Or maybe a Chaotix game with Vector, Espio, Charmy and Mighty? Again, less emphasis on speed, more on teamwork. Perhaps a bit like a 2d Sonic Heroes? Just spitballing.
Obviously I've nothing against Sonic, I love him! Just not sure how he can work in multiplayer when all characters are on a single screen.
@Woderwick What a great reply! You nailed so many things on the head there. Exactly right, even if some of it seems depressing you clearly understand the dilemas and realities of the situations. That said, I do feel the winds of change are blowing. Old giants are falling and its easier and easier for talented indies to get "hollywood style results" in their own back yards with consumer affordable equipment and edit at home. Give those people the smallest of actual budgets and access to one or two semi recognisable faces and they've made a blockbuster. We will soon have a new rennaisance of indies both big and blockbusterish, and small and artsy experiemental.
The big studio machine has recently failed to make the money it used to. There have been almost solid wall to wall disaterous flops from every major "blockbuster" in the last year. Studios can no longer assume that if they spend $500 million they will get a billion returned... more often than not they lose $300 million. And if talented indies can make a film of a similar quality for just $1 million, they'll make a huge proft where the studio film would have made a loss on the exact same box office. Its interesting times and I have hope that things are changing for the better, albeit slowly. I'm trying to be on the right side of history as far as all that, and encouraging and guiding it where I can.
But yeah, its still the "film industry" not "film art". You can make an award winning beloved film but if it doesn't return a profit, you'll never work again. Make something universally panned but that turns a profit, you'll be asked to make a sequel, or get funding for whichever new project you want to make. But when making smaller budget projects, its far less risky and you can make a return far easier, so you get to experiement.
You've probably seen/heard this because its very well known, but just incase you haven't heard it, Kevin Smith (someone who I have a huge amount of time for, lovely chap) telling of when he nearly directed a Superman film really encapsulates many of the experiences I've had over recent years with being an indie being courted to make studio pictures... I know the exact exec he is talking about (Jon Peters) and he's not exagerating for comic effect 😂
P1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk
P2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60
@Vexx234 I agree with all that - but for me unless they go split screen I don't see how either co-op or competitive multiplayer could really work with Sonic because of the emphaisis on speed and branching paths. For me, its nice to have it as an option for people who want to play as a family or mess around with friends after a few drinks but it can't ever really be the main selling point, as its always going to be a stop and start inbalanced mess.
As a single player experience though? Superstars is almost as good as 2d Sonic has ever been. And thats coming from someone who loves old 2d Sonic games more than life! lol
My original opinion of the music was that none of it was bad, but it didn't jump out to me as instantly memorable either, and yes some of it definitely loops too quickly.
On further reflection, I feel that perhaps the problem many are having (and sounds like you experienced) is that the soundtrack is split between Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue. Tee Lopes is always well regarded by fans for his work on retro style Sonic projects. Jun's stuff is more mixed - his Crush 40 stuff and "real music" (for want of a better word) with guitars and vocals etc for the 3d Sonic games and theme songs are always very well recieved, but when he tries to make 16bit style instrumental synth tracks, many people aren't as keen. This was the case with the Sonic 4 soundtrack, so its probably his tracks that give you that feeling. I don't personally feel they are bad at all, but the Tee Lopes songs are very obviously stronger / more fitting for this style of game.
@Woderwick I too am a fan of high camp, and also ott b-movies and ultra low budget weird artsy fun experiemnts and will give any and all the above much more of the time of day than most super high budget bland but very polished blockbusters.
Heroes was absolutely a casualty of the writers strikes and everything you said is correct. Its started off extremely strongly and after the first series everything very, very quickly fell apart and it never recovered, and the time invested in the first series seemed wasted. This is one of the reasons I don't watch most "must see" televsion until they finish their run. For example I avoided Game of Thrones thinking "when its complete I'll binge it, if its actually worth it after the hype settles" and SO many people who kept telling me to watch it got so angry with the last season that they now disavow ever even liking it in the first place.
You are astute to notice that about American shows and the filler / catch up nature. Its because their networks always used to order a very fixed amount of episodes, rather than British television companies which ask the writers how many episodes they think they need. So often arcs are stretched in American dramas, or filler plots are added. Its the same reason why American sitcoms and animated shows have "bottle episodes" or especially egrigiously those dreaded "clip shows". This is less of a thing with the high budget high concept dramas for streaming services like Netflix, Max etc which concentrate on quality and working with directors and writers to negotiate the most fitting amount of episodes, budget required etc, rather than first selling a show to advertisers then telling the writers how many episodes to make.
Its mostly a holdover from literal live broadcast television channels, because they sold their advertising in blocks of fixed amount of weeks so needed to have a guarantee what show would be on for a fixed window, and that was easier if all shows had the same amount of epsiodes so the blocks all aligned. Same reason why episodes are an exact fixed length, rather than running as long as they need to to best tell the story like a streaming or on demand show can. Also back in those days, longer running shows would push to hit 100 episodes even if it meant tonnes of filler or the quality diving off a cliff, because the networks could then package and sell the show to syndication which is where the real easy revenue was in the longterm. Again, with streaming, no need for a fixed amount of episodes. [edit - forgive me if any or all of that is obvious and you already knew or intuited as much! I have a tendency to over explain stuff just incase]
I honestly think with both Star Wars and Star Trek, JJ had little to no real creative control other than suggesting things and hoping the upper brass liked the ideas. In both cases he was just more lke a giddy fanboy who couldn't believe he was allowed to be associated with such properties and was willing to do whatever to make it work. Also to his credit he got a lot of work for others from the indie space on the films where he could. He really didn't have as much power or sway at that stage of his career that it sounds like you are assuming. He was essentially just another indie who got lucky and was offered to try something bigger. Back then, TV success did not matter a jot to movie execs, they were seen as completely unrelated and TV was a lowly unrespectable trash by comaprison in their minds. However he had written for some quite big movies, so Mission Impossible III was his "lets see if this unknown indie guy can direct a franchise pic" which because it did well lead to Star Trek, which then lead to Star Wars - each one a step up the ladder in budget and brand responsibility. Similarly, Gareth Edwards went from Monsters to Godzilla to Star Wars.
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Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@larryisaman I love that SammyClassicSonicFan stuck around on YouTube long enough for us to finally all learn about the consequences of our actions. Seeing him react to Superstars being anounced was fun. And given his Mario backpack, I bet he's excited to have Wonder released as well!
Re: Sonic Superstars Gets A Day One Update On Switch
@brakeman90 Hey no worries! I honestly can't tell any difference between patched and non-patched, it must have been very minor bug fixes or something but I played it solidly for 2 days before updating and it was rock solid.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Nua While I really like how Amy played in the Advance series and in Adventure, for me those make more sense as her modern moves that she has learned as she got older, stronger and tougher. The way she's implemented in Origins Plus is pretty spot on for what I'd have imagined "classic" Amy from Sonic CD to have played as back in the day (at least once I knew about her hammer, which she first got in Fighters). She plays very similarly to Sonic, which makes sense in my mind, she's a hedgehog afterall, and spends her time idolising him. I like her running smashy smashy hammer thing she does instead of the drop dash! And her super move is hilariously OP. She's a "easy mode" but she's very fun. Plus the sprite is super cute. Other than a couple of slightly awkwards frames for certain moves I think she looks perfect.
I think the main reason I felt she should have been included in Mania was because we had her in the classic games a year before Knuckles even showed up. I loved her right from the first preview I saw in a magazine when CD was in development and always wanted her to be playable in a game. Of course, Mighty and Ray were also in SegaSonic arcade, which was the same year as Sonic CD, so they should be there too... I just thought Amy is part of the "core 4" and far more well known so by jumping to Mighty and Ray it felt like she was skipped over on purpose.
I'd agree to your subscribing to Occams razor too if it were just the outfits... its the fact they are officially placing this game inbetween Mania and Adventure that makes me think there may be hope. Because they are unifying the timeline and allowing for games to be made that bridge the gap between the 2d pixel titles and the 3d ones. If they continue that line of thought, sequels to Superstars (or prequels to Adventure) could be interesting. It might also explain why Modern Sonic is in Sonic Pocket Adventure, despite it being mostly Sonic3 + 3 assets! lol
I loved the Archie Comics, and the Fleetway ones too - both completely different but equally bonkers and ambitious with the liberties they took. I feel like the IDW stuff is by far the most "official" feeling stuff so far though, its so carefully watched over and everything has to be approved a million times over - but its made by 100% raving longterm nerdy fans, so there so much lore and easter eggs and references there. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out over time.
And yeah of course AIR is the best way to play Sonic 3, and I'm a huge fan of fangames, mods, etc and also make my own. But there's something special to me about an official product, even if it isn't quite as good as other options, simply by the fact that its official and that means Sega approved it and if its good that means they are listening or there is hope for future stuff to be good. Origins now its officially updated to the point of being really good and is easily modable to add the old music back in or make adjustments if you want. For me though, just having the core four officially playable in all the 16bit titles is enough to justify its existance... though I'm still making my own version so Mighty & Ray and the Chaotix can play too... and you can have any partner character you want rather than just Tails. Why those restrictions are in the official game I'll never get my head around. 😅
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@gaga64 Haha yeah you summed it up pretty well. Its certainly been confusing up until this point! 😂
@Nua Very interesting post. I heard about that leak too, yeah. I think Superstars DLC is a given, it would definitely make sense to add more characters to the roster and if they do it would be classic ones like Mighty & Ray or the Chaotix. I'd like a deluxe physical "Plus" version in a slip case to match Mania and Origins but I don't think that will happen being they started off as a "full price" physical release from jump - but I could be wrong.
Also, yeah its absolute madness that Mighty and Ray aren't in Origins, just as I thought it was crazy Amy wasn't brought to Mania. Sega are weird with their characters like you said. Thats exactly why I'm making my own version of Origins with all characters in all games (including the 8bit titles, Chaotix etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM ) just to scratch the itches that I wish Sega would officially do! lol
I know traditionally they've wanted to keep the classic characters and the modern characters apart, but like I said, they have now seemingly finally allowed the possibility of the "classic" forms of the main four characters growing older and becoming the modern ones, and placing the game on the timeline like this, in addition to allowing Amy to get her new dress sets a precident thats its potentially possible for the other classic characters to get older and have modern versions. Of course, we already have modern versions of Vector, Charmy and Espio, so it would make sense to bring accross Mighty to complete team Chaotix. And if they did that, why not bring Ray? And then why not Trip? lol
But of course, Sega is Sega and just because something makes sense doesn't mean they'll do it. I've bought every console and add on they've ever made since the Master System, I'm used to them making baffling descisions or leaving glaring omissions by now. I still love them for the stuff they get right though. I love Superstars, and will happily buy any DLC and hopefully sequels. 😅
[edit] By the way I was going to correct you about Mighty and Ray not being in the IDW comics by saying I literally have comics right here with them in, but then I realised that they are one-shots. The Amy oneshot they just released has them both and lots of other characters. It even has Bean, and essentially "confirms" that he is the same character as Bin from Dynamite Dux (because he has a framed poster of his brother on the wall) even though Sega have previously claimed this not to be the case. I think thats a very smart retcon it was insanely stupid to try and claim they weren't the same character and just looked the same 😂 Bark is in that same comic too, its a wild one! Really cute little one off story for Amy to be the hero of.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Vexx234 Yes I forgot to mention mania in my reply to @gaga64 but you are completely right about that. Sort of like Disney retreading some themes in Force Awakens while adding new, Sega thought best to retread some old ground for Mania. The logic here is twofold, both to appeal to nostalgia of old fans, but also to hopefully introduce whats great about the property to newcomers.
My own personal feeling is Mania makes a far better "Sonic 4" than actual Sonic 4, firstly because it feels like an actual step forward from the older games, but because it actually has significant amounts of new zones, and the "re-used" ones are vastly expanded upon and improved, rather than just "same thing but different layout with rendered sprites, and removing many of the features of Sonic 3 and going back to Sonic 1 for some reason".
Again though, while I still would have thought it was naff, I wouldn't have felt quite so much vitriol towards Sonic 4 had it been called something else, and also kept as a mobile title and not promoted as a console game. Ironicly - this is exactly what it was meant to be during development. A mobile spinoff, not a continuation of the mainline series.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@gaga64 I'm not sure that it was ever officially outright called a reimagining, but there were interviews at the time of Episode 2 where they basically said "Episode one was just Sonic and zones from Sonic 1, now we're using zones from Sonic 2, and added Tails just like Sonic 2" and then hinted that Episode 3 would add Knuckles and levels from S3+K. Of course, that never happened as even though it was improved, reception still wasn't great, and sales were down.
Many of the games released around that time had been of wildly varying quality, with 06 and GBA Genesis still in recent memory, and Free Riders (the Kinnect one), Secret Rings, Black Knight all being poorly recieved but with some real high points like All Stars Racing, Colours and Generations. For me, Sonic 4 was the lwoest point of all that, especially as it deemed itself fit to use that name, it felt like an insult. Had it just been a cheap and cheerful mobile game that wasn't great, it would have been easier to brush it off. But that name still rankles.
Anyway, there was interviews from around the time they decided not to make Episode 3 where Iizuka said they were going back to the drawing board and Sega were making a commitment to releasing far fewer but higher quality games to refresh the brand, and also anouncing the partnership with Nintendo for 3 exclusive games. That was exciting! Of course, in reality that meant Lost World & the Sonic Boom games so I don't think they quite hit their target.
They then released another statement basically saying the same thing again... which lead to Mania, Forces and Team Sonic Racing. Much better overall, but after the latter two had a mixed reception he released another very similar statement, and anounced Colours Ultimate to try and appease the fans with a game Sega knew they liked, and to bide them time.
Since then we've gotten Origins, Frontiers, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Superstars. 😀 While Origins and Frontiers launch in imperfect states, I think thery are now in good shape, and I think the games are in the healthiest place they've been for a while 🥰
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@MontyCircus "She fostered for the money." wow I wasn't even aware that was a thing. I'm truly sorry to hear about that situation. Although I thank you for sharing your story and giving context, and would never discourage people from sharing experiences, I mostly agree with what @GooseLoose1 said.
The site moderators have asked that we don't keep elaborating on topics not related to the game, and I will respect that. I think I made my feelings, position and standing clear in all the above posts. I hope that fostered child is now doing ok.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@DripDropCop146 Ah, sorry! If its not obvious by my style of posting, I'm autistic. 😅 And for me that means sometimes I take jokes as serious by accident. 😇
Re: Review: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - The Best 2D Mario Since The Super NES
@F-ZeroX Wow thank you so much for taking the time to type that and for sharing such personal experiences. You sound like a fantastic father! I used to love sharing videogames with my kids when they were growing up too. That was a helpful post and gave me food for thought, thank you again!
I agree that in some ways 2d platforming is easier to pick up than 3d, certainly for difficult passages and intricate jumps. But many modern kids games jump straight to analogue stick movement, and just elliminate or automate jumps, as pushing a stick in the exact direction in realtive space to them is actually more intuitive, at first at least. Also, many of the most popular games with young kids are either touch screen experiences on phones/tablets, or 3d mouse and keyboard games like Minecraft and Roblocks. So its quite possible many kids grow up playing games but have never tried a 2d platform game, especially if they don't own a Nintendo platform. A good friend of mine is actually a successful and highly accomplished professional gamer and streamer (in her mid 20s) and had never played a platform game before. Blew my mind how hard she found it to adjust, though was gratifying to watch her progress and master it.
2d platformers have always been my favourite genre, especially cartoonish colourful mascot ones. Our mascot Hazel is actually going to star in many games, hopefully... as I said, we're designing her first game to be as beginer friendly as possible for all ages and experience, but also to be satisfying and challenging for experienced fans of the genre. As you intuited, that is not an easy thing to do at all. Of course, accessibility is also very important. We're trying to have as many options for differently abled people as well, where possible.
We have folders and folders of paperwork planning and documenting every tiny aspect so we can keep track of it all as development, balancing and refining through playtesting etc progresses. Its a challenge, for sure, but will be very rewarding if we get it right and both kids and their gamer parents, and gamers of all abilities and skill levels can get equal amounts of fun from it! 🥰
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@gaga64 Thats a very interesting case. Its essentially a "remake" of Sonic 2, but with Sonic 3 music, and Sonic's modern design! lol. Maybe modern Sonic ate something bad in mushroom hill zone and its all a hallucination?
BTW, despite me thinking its weird, imo its a really great game. SNK absolutely nailed the "feel" of it. I bought a beautiful Aqua Blue NGPC on launch day to play it, pre-ordered from the same store I also pre-ordered my Dreamcast, released around the same time. It was an exciting time to be a Sega and Sonic fan 🥰
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@DripDropCop146 As I said above, despite their (stupid) names, Sonic 4 Espiode 1 is a "reimagining" of Sonic 1, and Episode 2 of Sonic 2. So thats where they would fit into the timeline canonically - if I hadn't bannished them to the depths of gaming hell ðŸ¤
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Sanangelo89 Yes exactly, I'm all for a series of games between Superstars and Adventure where they are tweens, with elements of classic and modern being added. When does Sonic canonically learn his homing attack, for example?
Seeing classic Amy with her modern dress was the first hint that this might become a thing. I'm all for it, and especially think it could have really interesting arcs for the IDW comic series.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Vexx234 lol no I absolutely do! I find it hilarious. Right now as we speak I'm making final notes before recording a ridiculously long YouTube vide where I review every single Sonic game all the way up to superstars. I'm not even sure how long it will end up. 5 hours? 10 hours? 😱 I live for the weird stuff, and the historical context of it all.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Quiet2down Yes, that's certainly what they used to claim. Famously, repeatedly in interviews and especially at public events, when questioned if something was canon, Sega would just hardline say "everything is canon!" so as to not offend fans of something, even when pushed about obscure only semi official stuff like Sonic Schoolhouse, Sonic Eraser, or the weird LeapFrog version of Sonic 1 where maths and spelling problems keep blocking the the way. 😂 If questioned further on discrepancies between things like different backstories in different comics or whatever, they've repeatedly used the multiverse / infinitely splitting thing.
The conscious effort is to now try and retcon as much old stuff as is reasonably possible, and make everything moving forward more straightforward. But yeah, I'm 100% sure there will still sometimes be jumping between alternate multiverses and time travelling. Thats innevitable is you don't want to exclude some cool teamups and fun ideas. 😀 But it shouldn't be an all purpose "get out of jail card" for not caring about this stuff moving forward, so now Sonic's international audience is growing rapidly again and becoming popular with new generations of young fans and not just us old-guard, making stuff simple is a good idea.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@AlienX Yeah. Spoilers for second movie: I'm really looking forward to seeing how they handle Shadow in the third movie, especially now that they've decided the movies and comics are canon in how the characters are portrayed in the games moving forward.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Snatcher Its only extremely recently that they started to seriously trying to nail this stuff down. Earlier this year Katie headhunted a dude from twitter who seemed to be very knowledgable on Sonic lore and Sega of America hired him to be a proper lore master and help collate all the old stuff and make sense of everything, and basically reached out to Sonic Team and were like "uhhh, now that the brand is having a moment, with the huge success of the movies, comics, people wanting to make shows, more merch etc... we really need to get everything straight. Can we collaborate and agree on a solid canon moving forward so that everything will work well together?".
They make sure that the comics stuff, marketing team, tv producers, movie writers and all the difefrent teams making games (including mobile, speed simulator etc) are on the same page as far as the story and lore beats. They discussed this on a recent live stream on the official Sonic YouTube channel. The dude they hired seems great, just as obsessively nerding out about the tiniest forgotten detail as you'd hope someone hired to do that job would be.
Iizuka and Kishimito have both separately stated that they are really happy with how loved Sonic is in the west and how seriously fans take everything and embrace even the "bad" things of the past, and they want to make sure all areas of the Sonic fanbase are happy with all media moving forward and feel seen/represented. 😀
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Vexx234 Oh yeah, totally. Like I said I agree with you. I think a lot of what decisions were made were short term decisions and they didn't think too deeply about the long term lore because who'd expect fans would still care about lots of the incidental stuff 30+ years later? Especailly when licenscing out the property to different comics, cartoon shows etc - thats where it gets really messy!
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Snatcher I think the arguement is now that Classic and Modern Sonic are the same character at different points in time, and games that have them both are just Sonic time travelling to help himself.
This makes far more sense to me that what they used to say, that they were actually different characters from a different dimension/multiverse. The only reason they even went with that convoluted explanation in the first place is when they made the modern versions for Adventure they retconed so that the age gaps between the characters of Sonic/Tails/Knux/Amy were smaller, perhaps allowing for romance between Sonic and Amy if they wanted to lean into that further down the line.
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
@Vexx234 Sorry, I shouldn't have said "you all", I've gone back and edited my wording - but I was only half serious anyway. I get that this stuff isn't that serious and there's no possible way to make it all make full sense anyways. Thats all I meant.
I definitely think you are right though. Even though Sonic was created as a direct rival to Mario with the intention of being a brand mascot, I'm not sure anyone at either Sega or Nintendo was really sure that their mascot characters would still be going strong several decades later... they could have had no concept what videogames would evolve into over time, or if the market would even exist in a form they would be able to imagine.
Though while Mario's creation was somewhat of a happy accident (losing Popeye license, needing replacement game for failed existign arcade cabinets) combined with forced technology limits (colours, moustache, dungarees), Sonic was at least designed to be similar to Mickey Mouse in his broad appeal and as a brand that would exist outside of "only" videogames with animations and comics planned right from the start. So they probably hoped that he would last and tried to design something that could stand the test of time, rather than Mario's more accidental origins then being developped into a more long term brand friendly mascot over time through different iterations.
@MirrorFate2 I'm fairly sure we'll get more "classic" / 2d games that happen after Superstars and before Adventure. I'm sure they'll find a good reason for Trip and Fang to dissapear for a while (maybe Trip moves to a specific island to protect an emerald or whatever), but there's always potential for them to come back in new games set in the modern timeline too, now they've established that the classic and modern versions are the same characters, just older (which they have previously resisted for reasons that never made sense to me).
I'm really hoping there's a Superstars 2 or whatever and Trip is playabel from the begining. I love her and want her to become a staple character. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with her in the IDW comics to flesh out her character and backstory.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Super Mario Bros. Wonder?
I preordered, but its going to my house and I'm currently still at my mum's house sitting. Couple more days of playing Superstars til I get home and probably switch to Mario. Excited to try it!
Re: Takashi Iizuka Explains Timeline Placement Of Sonic Superstars
I know people will dunk on this and I honestly don't take this very serously, despite this mini info dump (and probably many more posts because I find it fun to talk about this stuff!) But there's a tonne of Sonic media not just the "run fast and do loops" games. They are making a conscious effort nowadays to make the comics, series, movies, and games all work together, and literally recently hired a lore manager to try and retcon as much of the previous stuff as possible, to answer common fan questions and help them feel that whichever continuity they grew up with is at least remembered and respected, if not fully adopted.
(There are at least 3 completely different sets of comics (Archie, Fleetway, IDW... also manga) and multiple runs of alternate universe tv shows. Every one of them is "Sonic's backstory" to somebody who grew up with them. Right here as I'm typing I've got a bunch of full Sonic novels (written books, not graphic novels!), and a run of the Fleetway comics, which have my favourite origin for Robotnik, a Chaotix based Archie special, some IDW...)
There will never be perfect answers for everything, and I don't think even the most obsessive of fans need that. But its nice to have things at least roughly make sense in your head canon, and not have your favourite character or plotlines be erased - its rather "they haven't met them yet" or "they live on a different island" etc.
To me, it was obvious that Superstars is after Mania, both because of Amy having the choice of outfits and Lego Sonic having green eyes (its like their awkward tween stage!) and because its basically "Sonic 5" to Mania's "Sonic 4". (the 2 games poorly labeled as Sonic 4 episodes are actually just partial remakes of Sonic 1 and 2. And we don't talk about them! lol )
My main takeaway from all of this is its very likely Mighty and Ray will be added to the game at a later stage. And the rest of the Chaotix, please? Also, its possible that both Trip and Fang will be added to new games moving forward, as well as potential "modern" forms for all the classic characters that haven't made the jump yet. I'd love that.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@MattmanForever I know you are joking, but not really, see my above comment and #19. It was a pretty decent success for Disney and is an active property being rebooted right now. In all my years on the periphery of various facets of Disney I've never heard anyone say it underperformed or was a disappointment. Sure it wasn't their biggest show, but there's plenty that have far less episodes and are all but forgotten nowadays by comparisson.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah I mentioned it in my above comment ( #19 ) defending the series. The reboot is live action (boo) but being directed by James Wan, so there is potential. Jordan Peele also pitched a movie adaptation, which could have been amazing, but they went with a show for Disney+ instead. It was meant to come this year but was delayed by the writers and SAG AFTRA strikes. Still very much coming though, last I heard.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Anguspuss Aww thats lovely, thanks for sharing. And yeah cats sure can be territorial about their favourite human! 😹
@pjzx Thank you, I hope so too! 😀
@TenClaws You are more than welcome 💜
Re: Reminder: Sonic Superstars Free Amy Rose Outfit And LEGO Sonic Skin Now Available
@Ristar24 I definitely feel that same way. Really happy you are enjoying it! 😀
Re: Wowie Zowie! An Elephant Mario Plushie Is On The Way In Early 2024
@Jiggies Haha agreed!
Re: Reminder: Sonic Superstars Free Amy Rose Outfit And LEGO Sonic Skin Now Available
@Vexx234 Oh yeah there's a tonne of potential in the character, he's not just the "Edge-hog" stereotype. I'd be up for another Shadow game, or a deeper story for him in one of the mainline games.
Spoiler if you haven't seen the second Sonic movie I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with him in the third movie. I really thought they did a great job with Knuckles in the second one!
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@nocdaes Thank you 😀 I've made mistakes like all parents but I've never done anything other than try and do whats best for my kids and my family. Its a cliched phrase, but they are my world. Quite literally.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Wisps Thank you! Well my (adopted) child is now a young adult and fully grown. Could not be any more proud of them. Never once did I for a second regret my decision to make them my chosen family 🥰
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@Woderwick Ah! Well I'm glad I shared it with you then. Indeed is a classic story and smith is a great story teller. I don't doubt a word of it, I've had very similar meetings and scenarios - especially having to have the same meeting several times and saying the exact same thing, but each time there being a slightly more important person in the room to hear you say it. 😂
Yes I'm especially fond of his early work, and the recent callbacks to them in his latest films have been great. But I even enjoy his less celebrated work - for example the entirely stupid concept of a film "Tusk" in the first half at least (before Johnny Depp turns up) is incredibly well excecuted, for such a knowingly stupid idea it plays it so dead pan and the writing and acting is far better than it has any right to be. Some of the best slowly raising of tension and unease of any movie I've seen. Which is all the more funny to be being the entire film was made as a joke.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Quiet2down Thanks. And yeah it wasn't Disney's biggest success but it was pretty well receieved, long running, and literally has a big budget reboot being made right now.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@NintendoLife Ok no worries, like I said, not planning on continuing. I said my piece and frankly didn't expect to have to defend myself against such random accusations, I thought my intention was clear. Again, sorry for accidentally disrailing.
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@Vexx234 Yeah despite the obvious problems due to it being over ambitious and rushed to hit the 10 year aniversary, '06 had a huge amount of potential, not least in the rounding out of lots of the characters. "Shadow the Hedgehog" was a game that I can't say I ever particularly want to play again, but I played it with my eldest child when they were little and its one of their earliest happy memories, so I love it for that at least. 😀
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@NintendoLife I'm sorry for accidentally derailing the conversation. But surely it was a valid concern to raise about the phrasing of the review? Of course if you don't want to change it you don't have to but when using inflamatory language (even accidentally) in the review it seems that people might feel justified in questioning why it was necessary?
Regardless, I've said all I need to say on the subject matter, I'm happy not to continue a circular discourse about it.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Vexx234 Definitely. Sure its not as successful as Duck Tales or whatever but what is? It met expectations for the network and is still a well loved and active property today.
@pjzx Thank you 😀 I meant well, at least.
@LEGEND_MARIOID Yes, that's what they are doing but it obviously comes from a place of hurt and love for their mother, and I fully understand that. These things can cloud our judgement or make us see enemies where there are friends, or be suspicious of those that would want to help. Hurt people hurt people. I don't mind them disagreeing with me and I'm sorry that I accidentally triggered an unpleasant thought or memory for them. I'd hope that they can see that that was the very thing I was trying to prevent happening to others.
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@AG_Awesome Its what Mario and the other characters say in the game when they pick up the power up. Like Mario's traditional "Wahoo!" and "Yeehaaa" etc. Its just, to some of us it sounds a little cringey and when the liklihood is its going to be repeated a lot, it has potential to quickly grate on your nerves.
Some people have started using it online, usually ironically or as a joke / meme because they know it sounds silly. But that's growing old fast and I don't want to get to the point where when I finally get to play the game, I flinch every time I hear it because I'm already sick of people saying it all the time.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Wasgo Thank you for the support. I wasn't aware my comment would be so controversial. Not my intention to rile people up or bring up upsetting memories or feelings. Infact thats what I was trying to prevent. Oh well!
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Scollurio Thank you, I appreciate that.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Kb111 Again, I'm literally a whistleblower who very famously outs abusers and p**philes in the industry. That includes people within Disney, who I have worked with and around, and the vast majority of the people there are great, some were awful, and where they are I call them out. Preaching to the choir.
I'm truly sorry to hear about your mother. I've suffered from abuse too, as have many people that I love dearly to a far worse extent than I. Its nothing to be minimised and again, I've made a point of using my position of power and influence to try to help people in those situations. But I don't think any reasonable person could claim that its likely to be normal that the majority of step parents are evil/bad, or that the vast majority of step children are unwanted? That seems way off.
I do very much agree that people should talk about their experiences if they want to. Raising awareness of issues is important. Again, I do exactly this - for example I often talk about my mental health struggles, austism and other uncomfortable personal experiences in public because it helps to normalise and make people aware, or helps others going through the same thing know they aren't alone. I absolutely want all victims to speak out if they are comfortable to do so - again, I literally helmed an entire extremely viral campaign about exactly this, and wrote a non profit book and have done countless hours of talking on podcasts advocating for exactly what you are also asking for.
None of that is remotely related to a casual stereotype that step-kids are not loved. I don't know where you are making that connection, you are imaginging me to be a villain that I'm the exact opposite of. I'm sorry if I've mistakenly given you that impression.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Zuljaras Oh absolutely its harder for single mothers to find a man who is willing to raise the other person's child. I don't debate that for a second. But for the men who do make the choice to marry the single mother and legally adopt their child? Those are the people that I highly doubt would do so if they don't love the kid and secretly resent them.
As I said, I think the old fairy tale stereotypes came from people marrying for money rather than love. Thats hardly the norm nowadays.
Because of my job I have seen and been exposed to some of the harshest and cruelest realistities of our world and met people that I can easily classify as "true evil". But my overall impression is that the vast majority of people are kind hearted people with good intentions.
@Vexx234 Yeah the show was a pretty decent success for Disney channel at the time, got 3 seasons and enough episodes to be syndicated. More recently, Jordan Peele tried to pitch a movie adaptation recently, and James Wan is making a live action series for Disney+. I've worked freelance for Disney in various capacities over the decades and I've never heard any one refer to the show as a failure.
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@Primarina I'm really glad you had fun with it! I definitely see how it can be funny and/or challenging with friends all together and I'm sure some families will enjoy playing together too. I just personally feel its never likely to be the main event of a Sonic game. You'll note I wasn't advocating for its removeal, however. Its nice to have as an option. And again, really nice to hear you are enjoying it 😀
@Quiet2down Yeah I agree with that, I'd like to see other characters get their own spin offs like what happened with Knuckles and Tails back in the 90s (and I suppose Shadow in the 2000s)
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@GreenTea haha thanks.
@Zuljaras I will... I'm not sure I understand the logic of that particular sterotype though. You think that most step children aren't loved? Surely that isn't true. I think it stems more from the old fairytales from the days people married for money/inheritance/property rather than baring any resemblance to modern society where its extremely common for parents to remarry, or single mothers to find a new partner who loves their children.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Kb111 I think if you were familiar with my work you'd know that I advocate for free speech all the time, very publicly and vocally. But I also advocate kindness and thinking about what we are conveying to others with our words. Casual turns of phrase can be cruel without that being the intention of the person saying them. I wasn't trying to police anything, just making a suggestion and pointing out why it might be a hurtful phrase rather than an amusing one. I said "let's not" and also stated that I wasn't casting aspirsions on Mitch, who I like alot.
And as for me being the example I want to set to the world - again, that's kinda famously my whole career. I'm far from perfect, no-one is, but I'm a work in progress. I'm sorry if my suggestion offended you - free speech means I was free to make the suggestion, and you are free to ignore it and tell me you think I'm being silly. Thats fine.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
@Scollurio Thank you. I was self conscious about posting that and because I'm in the public eye I don't ever really mention many details about my private life publicly, but I really think its a damaging stereotype that is common enough to be easily casually used without thinking of how cruel in concept it actually is. I'm sure Mitch meant nothing by it, I'm not calling him out. Its a commonly used phrase.
However, being the high rate of divorce nowadays there must be more kids than ever before who have step parents. Its already an unsettling enough situation for a child without the idea being put into their head that maybe their new parent doesn't really love them. It hurts me just to type that.
Re: Review: Gargoyles Remastered - One For Cult Disney Die-Hards Only
I don't mean to clutch pearls but please lets not keep normalising "unloved stepchild" as a metaphor. As a father to an adopted child I love them more than anything in this world and could not give less of a crap what their dna says, and neither could they. They are my child. I am their dad. There are a great many people who are adopted that have insecurities because of the common use of phrases like this. Similarly the evil step parent is a trope we shouldn't keep pushing into the popular consciousness.
And in any case, Gargoyles was a great show! lol
Re: Reminder: Sonic Superstars Free Amy Rose Outfit And LEGO Sonic Skin Now Available
@Vexx234 Now you're talking! I think Amy, Trip and Cream would make a really good team up. They'd all play together well, are the same size and the emphasis cold be on team work and considered platforming rather than speed.
Or maybe a Chaotix game with Vector, Espio, Charmy and Mighty? Again, less emphasis on speed, more on teamwork. Perhaps a bit like a 2d Sonic Heroes? Just spitballing.
Obviously I've nothing against Sonic, I love him! Just not sure how he can work in multiplayer when all characters are on a single screen.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@Woderwick What a great reply! You nailed so many things on the head there. Exactly right, even if some of it seems depressing you clearly understand the dilemas and realities of the situations. That said, I do feel the winds of change are blowing. Old giants are falling and its easier and easier for talented indies to get "hollywood style results" in their own back yards with consumer affordable equipment and edit at home. Give those people the smallest of actual budgets and access to one or two semi recognisable faces and they've made a blockbuster. We will soon have a new rennaisance of indies both big and blockbusterish, and small and artsy experiemental.
The big studio machine has recently failed to make the money it used to. There have been almost solid wall to wall disaterous flops from every major "blockbuster" in the last year. Studios can no longer assume that if they spend $500 million they will get a billion returned... more often than not they lose $300 million. And if talented indies can make a film of a similar quality for just $1 million, they'll make a huge proft where the studio film would have made a loss on the exact same box office. Its interesting times and I have hope that things are changing for the better, albeit slowly. I'm trying to be on the right side of history as far as all that, and encouraging and guiding it where I can.
But yeah, its still the "film industry" not "film art". You can make an award winning beloved film but if it doesn't return a profit, you'll never work again. Make something universally panned but that turns a profit, you'll be asked to make a sequel, or get funding for whichever new project you want to make. But when making smaller budget projects, its far less risky and you can make a return far easier, so you get to experiement.
You've probably seen/heard this because its very well known, but just incase you haven't heard it, Kevin Smith (someone who I have a huge amount of time for, lovely chap) telling of when he nearly directed a Superman film really encapsulates many of the experiences I've had over recent years with being an indie being courted to make studio pictures... I know the exact exec he is talking about (Jon Peters) and he's not exagerating for comic effect 😂
P1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk
P2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60
Re: Reminder: Sonic Superstars Free Amy Rose Outfit And LEGO Sonic Skin Now Available
@Vexx234 I agree with all that - but for me unless they go split screen I don't see how either co-op or competitive multiplayer could really work with Sonic because of the emphaisis on speed and branching paths. For me, its nice to have it as an option for people who want to play as a family or mess around with friends after a few drinks but it can't ever really be the main selling point, as its always going to be a stop and start inbalanced mess.
As a single player experience though? Superstars is almost as good as 2d Sonic has ever been. And thats coming from someone who loves old 2d Sonic games more than life! lol
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@Ristar24 I'm really glad you're enjoying it! 😀
My original opinion of the music was that none of it was bad, but it didn't jump out to me as instantly memorable either, and yes some of it definitely loops too quickly.
On further reflection, I feel that perhaps the problem many are having (and sounds like you experienced) is that the soundtrack is split between Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue. Tee Lopes is always well regarded by fans for his work on retro style Sonic projects. Jun's stuff is more mixed - his Crush 40 stuff and "real music" (for want of a better word) with guitars and vocals etc for the 3d Sonic games and theme songs are always very well recieved, but when he tries to make 16bit style instrumental synth tracks, many people aren't as keen. This was the case with the Sonic 4 soundtrack, so its probably his tracks that give you that feeling. I don't personally feel they are bad at all, but the Tee Lopes songs are very obviously stronger / more fitting for this style of game.
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Sonic Superstars Review?
@Woderwick I too am a fan of high camp, and also ott b-movies and ultra low budget weird artsy fun experiemnts and will give any and all the above much more of the time of day than most super high budget bland but very polished blockbusters.
Heroes was absolutely a casualty of the writers strikes and everything you said is correct. Its started off extremely strongly and after the first series everything very, very quickly fell apart and it never recovered, and the time invested in the first series seemed wasted. This is one of the reasons I don't watch most "must see" televsion until they finish their run. For example I avoided Game of Thrones thinking "when its complete I'll binge it, if its actually worth it after the hype settles" and SO many people who kept telling me to watch it got so angry with the last season that they now disavow ever even liking it in the first place.
You are astute to notice that about American shows and the filler / catch up nature. Its because their networks always used to order a very fixed amount of episodes, rather than British television companies which ask the writers how many episodes they think they need. So often arcs are stretched in American dramas, or filler plots are added. Its the same reason why American sitcoms and animated shows have "bottle episodes" or especially egrigiously those dreaded "clip shows". This is less of a thing with the high budget high concept dramas for streaming services like Netflix, Max etc which concentrate on quality and working with directors and writers to negotiate the most fitting amount of episodes, budget required etc, rather than first selling a show to advertisers then telling the writers how many episodes to make.
Its mostly a holdover from literal live broadcast television channels, because they sold their advertising in blocks of fixed amount of weeks so needed to have a guarantee what show would be on for a fixed window, and that was easier if all shows had the same amount of epsiodes so the blocks all aligned. Same reason why episodes are an exact fixed length, rather than running as long as they need to to best tell the story like a streaming or on demand show can. Also back in those days, longer running shows would push to hit 100 episodes even if it meant tonnes of filler or the quality diving off a cliff, because the networks could then package and sell the show to syndication which is where the real easy revenue was in the longterm. Again, with streaming, no need for a fixed amount of episodes. [edit - forgive me if any or all of that is obvious and you already knew or intuited as much! I have a tendency to over explain stuff just incase]
I honestly think with both Star Wars and Star Trek, JJ had little to no real creative control other than suggesting things and hoping the upper brass liked the ideas. In both cases he was just more lke a giddy fanboy who couldn't believe he was allowed to be associated with such properties and was willing to do whatever to make it work. Also to his credit he got a lot of work for others from the indie space on the films where he could. He really didn't have as much power or sway at that stage of his career that it sounds like you are assuming. He was essentially just another indie who got lucky and was offered to try something bigger. Back then, TV success did not matter a jot to movie execs, they were seen as completely unrelated and TV was a lowly unrespectable trash by comaprison in their minds. However he had written for some quite big movies, so Mission Impossible III was his "lets see if this unknown indie guy can direct a franchise pic" which because it did well lead to Star Trek, which then lead to Star Wars - each one a step up the ladder in budget and brand responsibility. Similarly, Gareth Edwards went from Monsters to Godzilla to Star Wars.